| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
U.S. faces wrath over Oly calls
By Lisa Riley Roche
Deseret News staff writer
Not everyone is feeling good about the 2002 Winter Games.
Some residents of Russia and South Korea are still so bitter about judging calls made against their athletes here last month that they're reportedly taking it out on American customers and companies.
A shopkeeper on a remote Russian island has posted a banner at the entrance to his compact disc and cassette store stating he won't sell to Americans because of the "unjust decisions" in Salt Lake City.
"The Americans did what they wanted to our team. This is our response to that attitude," Igor Boezitov, a former professional skier, told a Russian television station according to a report Thursday by Agence France-Presse.
The French wire service said that the name of Boezitov's shop is, ironically, "Hollywood and California." Apparently, a few Americans living in the far-eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalin, capital of Sakhalin, have been unpleasantly surprised at being turned away.
Russia's bad feelings about the Salt Lake Games aren't confined to that island. Under pressure from politicians in Moscow, Russian team officials threatened to pull out of Olympic competition to protest several decisions that hurt the country's medal count.
The one that received the most attention was the awarding of a second gold medal in pairs figure skating, after a French judge told authorities she'd been pressured to put the Russians in first place.
In South Korea, an online campaign is under way to urge a boycott of U.S. goods to protest the disqualification of Dong-Sung Kim, one of that country's top short-track speedskaters. The decision gave American Apolo Anton Ohno a gold medal in the 1,500-meter race.
More than 35,700 people have signed up, according to a report Thursday by the Associated Press. One Internet user wrote, "Let's opt for South Korean rice cake instead of McDonald's burgers, and let's smoke South Korean cigarettes instead of Yankee ones."
The boycott was launched by a 21-year-old university student, Joon-Young Huh. "I know it's realistically impossible to block goods from the United States, which is our closest ally, but I had to do something," he told the wire service.
During the Games, supporters of the South Korean skater had sent enough e-mails complaining about his disqualification to crash the U.S. Olympic Committee's Internet server.
Salt Lake Organizing Committee spokeswoman Caroline Shaw said the efforts won't affect the success of the 2002 Winter Games, which were labeled "superb" by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.
"Most people took away positive memories of the Games," Shaw said. "The group that gave us the highest marks and mattered the most were the athletes. They were phenomenal. That was clear when all the judging disputes arose."
Shaw said she was in the audience when Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier traded in their silver medals for gold, as the original gold medal winners, Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, stood by.
"Ultimately, the best people to look to were the athletes. As one who was in the audience when the Canadians were awarded the gold, the dignity and grace shown by the Russian competitors as well as the Canadians were what the Games were all about."
Contributing: The Associated Press ; Agence France-Presse
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com
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March 10, 2002
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